Continued popularity of wood as a source of heat has lead to increasing use of powered apparatus for wood splitting purposes. Many different forms of mechanical wood splitters have been developed. The most common design involves a frame mounted blade and platform arrangement wherein the blade, platform or both are driven toward and away from one another usually by a hydraulic cylinder. A wood block is placed between the blade and platform and the cylinder is activated to move the platform and blade together relative to one another thereby driving the blade through the wood block.